Rare 1975 Roosevelt dime fetches more than $500,000 at auction

An extremely rare coin, which had been kept in a bank vault since the late 1970s, has sold at auction in the US for more than $500,000 (£385,000).

The coin is a US dime and was produced by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975.

Described on the US Mint's website as "one of the rarest coins of the 20th century", it features a profile of former US President Franklin Roosevelt.

But it is missing a distinctive 'S' mint mark - one of only two dimes made that year known to exist without it.

Three sisters from Ohio, who wanted to remain anonymous, inherited the dime after the death of their brother, who had kept it in a bank vault for more than 40 years.

It sold for $506,250 in an online auction that ended on Sunday, Ian Russell, president of California-based GreatCollections, said.

The other "1975 'no S' proof dime" fetched $456,000 (£351,000) at auction in 2019 before being sold to a private collector.

The two coins were not in general circulation, as they were part of 2.8 million special uncirculated proof sets made by the San Francisco mint in 1975 featuring six coins, which sold at the time for $7 (£5).

A few years later, collectors found that two dimes from the set were missing the mint mark.

Mr Russell said the sisters told him they inherited one of the two dimes but that their brother and mother bought the first error coin discovered in 1978 for $18,200 (£14,000), which would amount to roughly $90,000 (£69,000) today.

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Their parents, who ran a dairy farm, saw the coin as a nest egg, they said.

The proof sets also included a [Abraham] Lincoln Cent, a [Thomas] Jefferson Nickel, a Bicentennial [George] Washington Quarter, a Bicentennial [John F] Kennedy Half Dollar and a Bicentennial [Dwight] Eisenhower Dollar.

The latter three were dated 1976, in preparation, the US Mint said, for America's 200th birthday the following year and were included to boost sales.

(c) Sky News 2024: Rare 1975 Roosevelt dime fetches more than $500,000 at auction